ACU student collects world championship silver

28 April 2010: Australian Catholic University (ACU) student Carly Griffith collected a silver medal at the recent World University Cross Country Championships in Kingston, Canada.

Carly Griffith

The 20-year old is completing a Bachelor of Exercise Science at the University’s Melbourne Campus, and ran the five kilometre race in 19:29.7.

“This was my first World University Championship representing Australia and it really was an amazing experience,” Carly said. “It was great to be able to compete and do everything as a team. I met so many people and made some fantastic friends from around the world, even if trying to communicate with some of them was a huge challenge.”

The Australian team, comprising of five women from universities around the country, placed second after Great Britain.

Each team member was selected by a panel from Athletics Australia according to how well they had placed in past cross country events.

Carly is part of the Elite Athletes Program at ACU. The Program provides support and flexible study options for athletes competing at a high level, so that academic and elite sporting aspirations can be successfully combined.

“I’ve really enjoyed my course so far and the lecturers have been extremely supportive when I need to travel for competitions,” she said. “I’d love to eventually teach so am looking at getting started on a DipEd once I’ve finished this course.”

Carly said she has been competing in cross country since she was seven-years old.

“I played a lot of netball and touch as well when I was growing up, but when it came to the crunch and I had to concentrate on one it was always going to be cross country,” she said.